﻿﻿Birth of a Bowl﻿

Part of the fun of wood turning, for me, is acquiring the wood. I have been known to drive around after a storm with my trusty Husqvarna chain saw in the trunk of the car looking for downed tree. Not just any tree, or any part of a tree is desirable. Burls from any tree a like gold to a wood turner. What is a burl? Glad you asked . . . A burl is a tree growth in which the grain has grown in a deformed manner. It is commonly found in the form of a rounded outgrowth on a tree trunk or branch that is filled with small knots from dormant buds and has the most beautiful and interesting grain patterns. The next desirable piece of a tree is a crotch, where a tree splits in to two or more directions. This section will usually have interesting grain patterns-not as interesting as a burl-but sometimes you can't be picky. If it's really nice wood, like cherry, spalted maple or hickory, a plain old slice off the truck or large branch is great.﻿

Anyway, back to acquiring wood . . . I'll stop when I see a tree service working on something interesting and they are usually nice and cut me a piece, especially Blackhawk Tree Service and JD Tree Pros. Occasionally I find a hunk of wood left on the driveway by a friend who knows what I am looking for. Now on to this particular piece of wood we go to Connecticut. Well, I don't go there, but my sister lives there and had one of there very old trees come down in a storm. She sent me pictures asking if I was interested in some of what had fallen. Not only did she save me a piece, they brought it to me when they came down for her husband's daughter's wedding in Charlotte. It really was quite a sight: two adults, three children, luggage and a maple tree crotch all packed into the small Honda. Thank-you Beth, Lee, Zoe, Owen and Thali, I really appreciate it!

So, here is what I do when I get a some wood to turn . . .

This turning starts with the wood on a faceplate, I do the rough turning trying to get the basic shape set. Then on what will be the bottom of the bowl, I turn either a tenon or recess to be griped by my 4-jaw chuck. This process is call "reverse-chucking" because you mount the wood one way, then reverse it to finish. In the time lapse there are a few pauses as I try to get out a screw that broke off from mounting the faceplate.

The bowl now sits in a bag full of wood chips slowly drying; it will take a month or two before I do the final turning and finishing and send it off to my sister, so I will be adding more to the slide show as I finish this work in progress.